MAKING VOCABULARY MEMORIZATION STRATEGIES MORE EFFECTIVE AND ENJOYABLE FOR FIRST YEAR CHINESE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

The paper reports an effort to assist a small volunteer group of Chinese university students to overcome the great difficulties encountered in learning vocabulary by introducing them to three techniques, each proven to promote successful vocabulary learner, as an alternative to the traditional rote memorisation to which they are accustomed. Eight female first-year English majors at Jingchu University of Technology, Jingmen, Hubei, volunteered. For a period of eight weeks, their teacher, the first author, trained them in a number of vocabulary learning techniques. Their progress and attitude towards the new techniques were carefully monitored. The results indicated that the new techniques led to better learning than the traditional method. The study pointed to the need to teach further strategies, such as learning lexical bundles and better time management.